Pumpkin Donuts, Craft Beer, and Evie’s 1st Birthday

I flew to Chicago last week and then drove a quick 3 hours to spend the weekend celebrating my niece’s 1st birthday with apple picking, pumpkin donuts, an Oktoberfest party, craft beer, and my favorite, carrot cake! We had a great couple of days, and it was so nice to do all of the fun fall stuff I love about the Midwest.

I obviously had to take advantage of dressing Evie up in some cute clothes (this pretty sweater was handmade by a family friend)! I kissed those cheeks a thousand times 🙂

We were on a mission to find the best apple or pumpkin donuts, so we went to a local apple orchard and picked up some Honeycrisp apples, my favorite cherry salsa, and some AMAZING donuts. We got there when they were hot, so we obviously inhaled them.

I wanted to do some early Christmas shopping, so my SIL took me to a new outlet mall in Grand Rapids. It’s a good thing that I don’t live close to this place… my once light suitcase weighed a million pounds on the return flight 🙂 Evie was a model baby and just hungout in her stroller while we shopped.

The big birthday party was on Friday, so we stocked up on a ton of craft beer…I was in heaven! Guatemala needs to catch up 🙂

We baked Evie’s birthday cake Thursday night, and frosted it with a cinnamon cream cheese filling and cream cheese frosting. She devoured an entire piece the next day 🙂

My brother brewed some of his own beer for the party. The black IPA was my favorite! (Yes, those are shell casing and antler pulls).

We set up a bag toss, and made a ton of German food for the party. We had brats, sauerkraut, pretzels, various cheese boards, caramel apples, and BEER!

Evie even wore a Oktoberfest themed outfit (dress from Guatemala)

It was so nice to see a lot of my family that came! See you again in 3 weeks, Grammy!

Enjoying Sweater Weather!

I’m so glad I was able to make the trip home, even if it was just for 2 days. I love you so much, Evs!!